FOXBORO – He said it three times in three sentences, which might mean he wanted to convince himself what he was saying was the truth.

During the week leading up to last night’s game against the Patriots at Foxboro Stadium, Jim Fassel was asked if he thought the Giants’ offense had a fragile psyche. The question was certainly valid, considering the offensive unit barely had a pulse in the season opener in Tampa and last week against the Redskins failed to mount much of anything until faced with a steep 21-0 deficit.

“I think they’re all right, I really do,” Fassel said. “I think they’re all right. I think they’re all right because I think they know what they can do and I don’t think they’re afraid of what they can’t do.”

Three times, Fassel said his offense was all right. And while he’d like to believe that, that doesn’t mean it’s the truth.

Two weeks into a season that was supposed to contain so much promise for the perennially dismal offense, the Giants were ranked 28th in the league in offense, which is about where they’ve been for the past five years.

The names change, the players change, the quarterback changes, even the head coach has changed, and yet the offense remains in shambles. In their first two games, the Giants showed absolutely no ability to move the ball on the ground, averaging a paltry 55.5 rushing yards per game. They showed an ability to move the ball in their passing game only after last week’s 50-21 stomping by the Redskins has been decided.

The most indicting statistic to reveal exactly what the Giants were and were not getting accomplished was that they had converted only 3 of 24 third-down attempts, which is the sort of efficiency that puts teams out of contention.

No doubt, the Giants last night, against what in the first two games of the season appeared to be an ordinary New England defense, needed to pile on yards, put up some points and get some positive vibes running through their offense.

Fassel was on the scene when the offense struggled the past two seasons, but unlike his first two years, he sees more spirit, talent and confidence from this bunch.

“We’re trying to build within this team,” Fassel said. “Brian Williams coming back, the type of guy he is. Kent Graham is a fighter and a stand-up guy. There are more personalities of substance than there has been before.”

The personalities may be better, but the substance after two games was more of the same old slop. No single area distinguished itself. Graham was barely ordinary, as his best moments came in the second half of the blowout loss to Washington.

His completion percentage of 58.2 was excellent, but had only one touchdown pass, his longest completion went for only 38 yards and his mobility did not help him manufacture the big plays he produced in the preseason.

The running game, devoid of injured Gary Brown, was expected to get off to a slow start, but not quite this slow. The receiving corps, supposedly much-improved, was invisible against the Buccaneers and, again, showed flashes in the second game only after the Redskins’ defense relaxed with a comfortable lead.

The feeling around the Giants, though, is that all is not lost, and there is more hope than there’s been in the past. The line figures to get better as Williams shakes off the rust that formed when he missed two seasons with an eye injury and rookie Luke Petitgout adjusts to life in the NFL.

The running game should get a boost as early as next week, when Brown is expected to return. Until then, Sean Bennett is slowly getting accustomed to how patient and aggressive he needs to be. Both Amani Toomer and Ike Hilliard surpassed the 100-yard mark in receiving yards against the Redskins, which did not help at all on the scoreboard but could help spark the Giants’ starting receivers.

A big part of what the Giants want to do – throw deep after freezing the defense with play-action passes – has been grounded, as the running game has not been enough of a threat to make any defense flinch.

“It makes it more difficult for our play-action pass when we’re not running the ball effectively and we’re not able to get the linebackers to [close in] as much,” Graham said. “We got to be able to establish the running game because that’s what Giants football is about.”

The start of everything the Giants want to accomplish on offense is triggered by the offensive line, which allowed four sacks in the first two games and did such a poor job of run-blocking that the Giants were averaging only 2.6 yards per rushing attempt. Third-and-short might as well have been third-and-forever and too often, when the Giants ran the ball on first down, it was second-and-long on the next play.

“The biggest thing right now, everybody says inconsistency, but almost every play there might be a breakdown somewhere,” Williams said of the offensive line. “We open one up and, bang, the next play we get a penalty. Our running game hasn’t had the opportunity to work because we have not put ourselves in good positions.

“We get off the sideline, you can talk all you want, ‘Hey, let’s get some tempo going, let’s get some rhythm doing,’ but talk is cheap. We have to go out and prove it and we haven’t done it yet. We know that.”